Never Happy, Ever After
by MeredithBrody
Summary: Brody finds out she's pregnant, and she and James have to adjust to the idea of being parents. Something they had never planned on doing, and both have to make changes to make it work. (Brody/James)(post S1 canon divergence)
1. Chapter 1

**So, I don't remember how this _originally_ came about, but both Steph and Icka wanted me to write more about Merri and James as parents. I have no idea when this'll be updated, as it's one that I'm only going to pick at. Sooo. Anyway. The title is from the album of the same name by British Pop-Punk band "As It Is". Who are amazing, go listen to the album. Just, trust me and do it.  
Shin xx**

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There were some discoveries that were made that made everything else make sense, and sometimes that thing was the worst possible thing you could imagine. As Brody looked at the date on her reminder card she realised what everything else she'd been experiencing for the last month make sense. "Shit!"

"Brody?" Came a questioning voice from across the bullpen. LaSalle was out running through some basic training with Percy, meaning she and Pride were alone in the office, and if anyone would understand, or at least be sympathetic, to the situation she was currently finding herself in. But she still didn't really want to say.

"Nothing." She looked up at him, and desperately tried to play innocent. She needed to not say it aloud to anyone, because that would make it real. She didn't want it to be real right now.

"What's wrong?" He asked, not being put off by the fact that she denied she'd said anything to begin with. She should have known he'd see through that play. She just still didn't know what to say, or how to explain how she felt.

"It's nothing." She waved a hand in front of her face, hoping that he'd just forget it. She really didn't actually want to talk about it in the end. Purely because that meant she needed to know what she wanted, and at the moment she didn't even know that this was possible.

"It's not nothing. I know you." That was true he did, better than almost anyone else in her life. Of everyone in her life, James and Pride both just got her. Pride had become a trusted friend and confidante since she'd moved to New Orleans, and as of right now he was the only person who knew she and James were official again. So she decided to get his thoughts on it.

"I've been nauseous for a couple of weeks, and apparently I was supposed to get my implant replaced 3 months ago." She hadn't even known it was due, had it really been three years since she'd had it changed when she moved to Cedar Rapids. That seemed like a lifetime ago. That implant had gone in to stop this exact situation.

"Implant for what?" He looked at her as if he was imagining her as some kind of horrifying Star Trek villain like they'd seen Sebastian dressing as for a convention he, Patton and Melissa had gone to a few weeks earlier. After a few seconds of her just staring at him he clearly realised, and blushed a little. "Oh, that implant."

"I've been craving junk food and my boobs are sore and…" She kept rambling on, she knew that there were reasons for everything that she had other than pregnancy, but that was the only thing that she could think about.

"We may have passed into the TMI territory there." King laughed, holding his hand up to stop the avalanche of words that were falling from her mouth, and while she was happy that he stopped him, she wasn't really sure what it was going to mean for her.

She just looked at him and shook her head. There was so much right now going through her head, but all she could really think was that she might be pregnant. She could, somehow, have a child. "King what if I'm pregnant?" It was rhetorical, but she needed to ask it anyway.

"Is that a problem?" He asked a very good question, and she didn't honestly know whether it was or not.

"Possibly." Her own feelings on a pregnancy were confused, she'd always thought that if it happened she'd let it happen, but she'd also always thought that she'd know what her partner wanted. She had no actual idea whether James wanted children. They'd never been something they'd seriously considered, so she didn't know how he felt. "James and I never thought about kids. Even first time around. They were never a priority."

"And now?" She knew what he was talking about, she was getting older, and they both knew that sometimes at her age and older it was hard to have children. So maybe this was the universe telling her 'if not now'. But that wasn't enough, was it.

"I don't know." She admitted. Brody hated not knowing, she hated uncertainty. Most of all she hated when she couldn't rationalise something in her mind. Right now, that was the last thing she would do. All she had was arguments against having one. "I don't think I can handle kids. Not in this job."

"What's so wrong with kids and this job, Laurel turned out well." He beamed, and she could understand why. Laurel was a lovely kid, and the most she'd been affected by King's job was when Orion was injured. That just made Brody more worried that she was the only one.

"I think she's the exception that proves the rule." She verbalised her thought. It made her happy that Laurel was so great, but she was certain that it wouldn't happen again.

"Maybe you should go home, talk to James," that seemed evident as something she needed to do. She needed to talk to him, to tell him that this was going. Pride knew what was happening from James' side, so if he was advising her to go and talk to him, she really should. "and maybe take a test." That was another good hint

"I'm scared, King." She never admitted when she was scared, so she was sure King would know how worried she was about this. He pulled her into a light hug and smiled, rubbing her back a couple of times.

"It'll be fine. Do it." His gentle encouragement was probably the one thing that was telling her that she'd be able to find out, and maybe then she could make an opinion, and a decision, on what she wanted to do.

"You're right." She accepted that, she knew he was right. She needed to just take the plunge and do it. Eventually the day ended and driving home she pulled in at a drug store and picked up a few pregnancy tests. She wanted to know one way or another before she spoke to James. She wanted to have some idea what she wanted to do when it came to the situation. She knew that there was an out whichever way they went. Abortion was a possibility, and so was adoption.

She took one test after another before finally coming to accept the result that was being given to her. She was pregnant and she needed to face it. No matter how much she'd thought she needed to think this over, it turned out facing the decision she actually wanted James to play a bigger part, or maybe she just wanted him there. So she pulled her phone out, and hit his contact in her phone.

"Lathom." He answered, and she realised that clearly James was still in work mode, which probably meant that he was busy with a story. He had tunnel vision sometimes if he was really into a story he was working on, and that meant he wouldn't think about much else. She was about to give him something else.

"Hey, can you come over?" She asked quietly. Her voice felt like it was coming from somewhere far away, and she didn't really know how to get it to come back to her.

"What's up?" He asked, and that was how she knew she was right. He was busy working, and that generally mean that he wouldn't want to be pulled away. She couldn't wait though. If she could she wouldn't have taken the test.

"James just, come over please." She was willing to beg at this point. She really couldn't face this on her own. She needed to know what he thought. What he wanted to do. If he had a strong opinion, she was sure it would sway her. She hated this.

"OK. I'll be there in ten." He sounded just a little panicked and she realised he thought she was hurt or in trouble.

"See you then." She hung up, wondering if it would actually take him that long. He had maybe implied that this was a bigger deal than it was.

It took only seven minutes, then she heard the hammering on the door. She clearly wasn't getting to the door fast enough as she heard him hammer again. "MB open the door!" He shouted, and she opened the door and looked at him for a second.

"I'm here, calm down." She replied as he grabbed her and pulled her into his arms. He could be protective when he was pushed to it. He wasn't the romantic type, and she liked that about him, but when she needed him he had always come through in the end.

"You called me and made it sound like an emergency!" He said as he stepped back and looked her over. Brody didn't know what he was looking for, but she knew that he would want so much more from her than something simple. Because right now she knew she'd scared him. So she should tell him.

"I'm pregnant." It fell from her lips slightly less elegantly than she'd planned. She knew that when she said that James was still looking her over for if she was hurt. Which made the following seconds before it registered hilarious for her.

"Are you hurt, are you… wait, what?" He stopped mid thought and stared at her. Brody wondered if it would have been possible for his jaw to actually have been touching the floor. He just stared at her, open mouthed, and she couldn't entirely blame him. She was sure she looked like that.

"Yeah. I'm pregnant, I did six tests… all positive." That had almost certainly been excessive, but she hadn't believed it until then. She just needed the amount to confirm to her. They all seemed to be strong positives too.

"I thought you had an implant?" There was no accusation, no anger. Just simple confusion. she was willing to cut him slack for that. She had been confused at first, and she couldn't believe she hadn't realised it was due for replacing. James clearly wasn't blaming her or this.

"It ran out three months ago and with all the stress after Baitfish I forgot to get it replaced." That was also what had brought them back together, so she couldn't even blame Baitfish, really. This was just something that the universe had decided it was time they face.

"MB…" James looked confused, and a little like he was stuck in the headlights. She was pretty sure he couldn't believe he was having to think about this, especially given the two of them were always quite steady on avoiding this subject.

"I know, we need to talk about this." She said, finishing the sentence she knew he wanted to say. This was not a situation they could get through without talking it over seriously been the two of them.

"Yeah." He just nodded, and that was when she realised that this was something that was actually happening. She was actually pregnant, and she and James were actually going to have to have a discussion about what to do with said pregnancy. For some reason, for the first time ever, she was entertaining the idea of having a baby. The question was, was James prepared to be a dad?


	2. Chapter 2

**So, James has been told, and now they have to figure out what to do.  
Shin xx**

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It seemed like it was taking more than she'd expected for her news to break through the block the words had mushed James' brain into. Not that she could entirely blame him, that was how her brain had gone when she'd had it confirmed too. The fact that neither of them had ever planned this was making it even harder to accept. "You're pregnant."

"Yeah. I am." She nodded, looking at him. As she thought about it she wondered how it would work if they did this. Brody had never ever planned on having children, and she knew that James hadn't really either.

"What do we do about this?" He asked, and she didn't really know exactly what she wanted for the two of them, and for their baby. She still wasn't completely certain that she wanted the baby. But she was pretty sure she wanted this now.

"I'm not sure." She was going to keep being honest, she needed it to be that way. She and James had always been honest with each other no matter what, so she wasn't going to change that now.

"MB, we only just got back together." James sighed, and he also had a point about it. She thought for a few seconds about what that meant. They had been apart for a while, and they had been back together for only a few months, less than six, but there was something about this that mattered.

"I know, but this happened for a reason James." She genuinely believed that. Some things happened for a reason, and she knew somehow that this was one of them. This being a problem was possible, but she didn't want to think about it.

"You never used to believe that." He didn't sounds angry, or upset, just like he wanted to understand her thinking. She needed to find a way to explain how her current thinking was a full 180 from how she normally thought.

She just nodded as she thought, she hadn't really ever believed that. Once upon a time she'd been completely cynical about everything, but this had given her a reason to believe in something. "I know, and really I still don't. But something good should come out of all this. I know it's only been a few months, and I know you and I are working things out... but I think this would be good." She genuinely did believe that this could work out for them. If they both felt like it was a way to go. Clearly, straight away James was thinking of an outcome, and not everything else that went with it.

"It would be kind of cool to have a little you." James' grin made her look up at him and shake her head slightly. She had to admit, the thought of smaller versions of them did make her happy, but she also knew that there was no guarantee that would happen, and there was a lot more they needed to know about.

"James." Merri chastised slightly, and he leant forward and kissed her in response. Somehow, that didn't surprise her either. She knew that he would want to focus on the good things right now, especially given how they didn't really know anything other than that they had created a small human together.

"No, Meredith, I love you and I'll do whatever you think is right." That was a relief. She had been a little afraid that James would try to push something, but she could tell, right now, that he was just willing to listen to her.

"So, should we keep it?" She asked, wanting to at least know his opinion. Even if he knew she would do whatever she thought was best, he had to have an opinion. This wasn't really something she'd feel right about making a decision and having him have to live with it.

"Why wouldn't we?" He asked, and from anyone else she'd think that was a rhetorical question. She knew James better than that, though, and she therefore knew he was being serious. He wanted to know why she didn't think they could have a child, and she needed to think of the appropriate words.

"I'm a federal agent, you're a journalist." It was somewhat pointless for her to say their jobs, and the reasons why them having a baby was probably a bad choice. Though there were definitely other things they could do, and she was certain there were things they could do to make their lives more ready for a baby. "We're still not stable."

James clearly thought about how he could sort that so that they'd be able to give more time to each other and to their baby. "I can take more US only assignments, you can spend more days off and nights at home. We could do it." Something about James thinking about all that made her realise that he wanted this baby. he wanted them to become this family, and maybe she really did too.

"You want kids?" She asked, more than a little surprised. He'd never implied that he wanted children, or even considered them. Maybe because she'd never wanted them she'd just assumed he wouldn't want them either, or maybe because they'd never talked about it past saying they had other things they wanted to focus on.

"MB, we both always said they weren't a priority, we weren't going to actively try for them... but this one fell on us anyway." OK, James had a point there. Maybe it was less a case of wanting them and more a case of them not being a priority. "Maybe we should take that as a sign. If you want to terminate, or anything else, then I will support you 100%, but I think we had a sign."

"You make some very good points. I just..." She trailed off and shook her head. There were just all the things that she could see going wrong with children. She didn't want to think about it, but whenever she tried to think a good thing, those old doubts came to the surface. She was pretty sure that James wouldn't let her keep doing that. "I can see everything that can go wrong."

"I can see a little girl with dark curly hair." She remembered James' curly hair when he tried to grow it out. It was almost in ringlets, and she'd spent nights twisting it around her fingers. She would love for a baby that looked like that. "Your colour, my hair." She smiled, thinking about that suggestion.

"She looks cute." She admitted after a few minutes. Merri didn't know exactly why he'd decided they'd have a girl, but she was willing to go with it. So she just kept imagining this child that they were now going to be responsible for, for the rest of their lives.

"Yes she does." James smiled, clearly agreeing with her. She snuggled into him a little more, and thought about this. "I understand you can see the bad, but let's focus on the good. I'm not going to leave you this time, I made that mistake once before." He continued, and she believed that he wasn't going to leave.

"Then..." She smiled thinking about the decision they'd just made, or at least, they'd just took steps toward making the situation. She knew there were already a billion other things she could, or should, be doing to plan for a baby. "I guess we're going to be parents."

"We are?" James asked, smirking. He said it was her choice, and that he'd support her no matter what she chose. He had been trying to prove to her that he was going to stay with her, and so far he'd stuck to everything that he said. So she decided to suck it up, and she could do it.

"Yeah." She smiled and leant forward to kiss him hard. They spent the whole night curled up thinking about how they would be as parents. It seemed new and suddenly really exciting. She wasn't really sure how long that feeling would last, but it was nice to spend the night with him just chatting and thinking about what the next few years could bring for them as they prepared to welcome another member of their family. As well as they could at least.

The following afternoon was the first time she and Pride had had a long enough break to think about the conversation the day before. She had seen him looking at her a few times, but he hadn't pushed. Even though he knew that she'd know by now, he didn't push her. "Did you do the assignment last night?"

"I did." She sighed and looked over at him. Thinking of a way to tell him without outwardly coming out and saying it. She just wasn't really sure about it yet. "There will be a new member of the team in around seven months."

"I'll have to congratulate them." He replied, and she knew what he was saying, she'd make sure to pass on his congratulations to James when she got home, or when they next saw each other. They hadn't made any firm plans for today, but she was sure that there was going to be some major changes coming up. "Was the other interested party involved?" That was his coded way of asking if James was happy about it. She got that.

"They were very receptive in the end." She smiled, that had been such a huge fear for her, but James had been happy. That had made her happy.

"Who's pregnant?" Came the question, and that was when Brody remembered that Percy could figure codes out faster than pretty much anyone else she'd known. That made this awkward, as she really didn't want to say yet.

"What?" LaSalle asked coming in to the office as well a second later. Clearly not early enough to have heard the conversation, but definitely nosy enough to want to know what they were talking about.

"An arrival in seven months, congratulations and interested parties." Percy listed them all off and then smiled widely, she made it look as though a pregnancy was the only actual sensible answer here. "Someone's pregnant."

"How the hell do you do that?" LaSalle asked, and she really had to stop herself from laughing at the two of them. It was definitely one of the funnier side effects of Percy's joining the team. Right now, they seemed to be distracting themselves from the actual question that was asked.

She looked at him and laughed, and Brody just looked over at Pride and rolled her eyes. "It's my superhero power."

"You are a freak of nature, Percy." LaSalle commented and shook his head. That just reminded Brody of the things that LaSalle had thought about her before they'd all settled in with each other.

"You'll get used to it." She smiled, and all Brody could think was that she was glad LaSalle and Percy's bickering had gotten them off the topic. While she didn't mind Pride knowing now, she just wasn't sure that she was ready for them all to know. James and Pride were enough for right now.


	3. Chapter 3

**Been a while since I updated this. This is from James' POV, and introduces us to two recurring characters in this fic. Adelaide and Jade. They are both based on former colleagues of mine from when I worked in the media, so Anna and Jenna, if you somehow read this, thanks for being my friends.  
Shin xx**

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James hadn't seen too many of his colleagues today, he'd been looking through and editing his gallery of photographs from his last assignment, and praying that he didn't get an assignment. Tomorrow he could get one, but today he wanted to take in the news he and Merri had got the night before. Apparently after a while his absence from the more public areas off the office and Adelaide, his assistant, popped her head around his door, followed a minute later by Jade, who was the junior journalist who shared the office. "You took off like speedy Gonzalez last night." Adelaide commented, and he just grinned.

"MB called me." He could at least be honest about that part. They were meant to try and keep it quiet for a while, but he wasn't sure he could, at least not from these two. They'd keep it to themselves until he was ready to make an announcement, he was sure.

"MB? That's the girlfriend you moved to New Orleans for, right?" Adelaide asked, coming into the office and putting some files on his desk. She was a pretty young woman, who was one day going to be a great reporter. He didn't remember ever mentioning that Merri had been why he'd settled in New Orleans, but she'd somehow known anyway.

"That's the one." He just confirmed and smiled. He wasn't actually unhappy to admit to people that he'd moved here for Meredith. He loved her, and he had been determined that if she ever gave him the time of day again, he'd make sure that he spent every day showing her that she'd made the right choice.

"Girlfriend? Who has a girlfriend." Jade asked looking confused. She was not always the one most interested in the gossip of her colleagues. She was much better at focusing than the average reporter he knew. She just put her head down, got her job done and went home. He actually knew nothing about her.

"James." Adelaide pointed at him, and he watched as Jade tilted her head and smirked a little then went back to whatever she was reading as Adelaide continued showing her impressive knowledge recall. "She's in some sort of law enforcement, right?" OK he did remember mentioning that. Way back at the beginning when he'd told her that she was to automatically deny anything asking him to go to a crime scene. That had been the deal he'd made with Merri.

"She's NCIS." He confirmed, and pointed to one of the pictures on the wall, one he'd taken last time he was in town of her leaving a scene. That was right before he'd called her over, and they'd started on this crazy journey.

"She break up with you?" Jade asked, and that made him almost jump. He'd just been thinking about how uninterested she normally was, and of course she'd started asking. He was sure he wouldn't be talking quite so proudly about his girlfriend if she'd just broken up with him.

"No, no. The opposite." He beamed widely. Nothing was more permanent than having a child with someone, as you couldn't get it annulled, or get a divorce. That child was part of you forever. No matter what happened.

"She proposed?" Adelaide asked in a hushed voice, clearly realising that whatever they were talking about was not necessarily something that he was ready to shout around. She was really good at working things out, and he just laughed a little. A proposal was going to happen, eventually, but it wouldn't come from Merri.

"Not quite, and that's my job anyway." At the look they both gave him. He realised how it could have sounded, and he wanted to make it clear that it was nothing untoward. he'd just messed it all up the first time, so it was his job to find another way to convince her that he was worth taking a chance on. "Not like that, we've been engaged before."

"That sounds like a story." Jade sniggered as she picked up the papers again. She was clearly torn between interested and disgusted right now, and really James couldn't blame her. He wasn't the most interesting of people really, but this was an interesting story. Purely because they hadn't all been working together for very long.

"I left for Afghanistan, she wasn't very happy." That was the easiest way to put it. Sure, there had been other aspects. Merri's struggles after Emily's death and what had happened on the Moultrie had contributed to her side of their break up, but the main reason was that he'd left.

"How long were you apart?" Adelaide asked, leaning against the wall just on the inside of the door. She looked comfortable stood there, and he was quite impressed that she was still asking questions. He would have expected everyone to be bored by his life story by this point in time.

"Six years." They had seen each other in among all that, but they hadn't officially been together. Really all they'd been most of that time was a release for the other, and he'd always been happy to be that. Not though, he couldn't imagine being anything but with her for good. "We got back together a few months ago." He smiled, remembering her sudden trip to Dubai to see him, and then his decision to move permanently to New Orleans. This was really the perfect end to the story. "And now she's pregnant."

"Your girlfriend is pregnant?" They asked simultaneously then looked at each other and laughed loudly. He just shook his head and looked between the two of them. Just once he wished he worked with guys, then remembered the guys were just as gossipy.

"Yeah. I'm not technically supposed to say but..." He trailed off and shrugged, laughing a little as he did. He really shouldn't have said it, but he was sure Merri would have told at least one of her colleagues, and he was excited too.

"You're excited." Jade smiled, and James realised that she got him. He had never actually thought that children would ever be something that were possible for him and Merri. She'd never really wanted them, and he hadn't cared enough to push. The fact that something in the universe had see fit to give them one anyway made him think that it was all too good to be true, sometimes. "With good reason." She continued, and he just nodded.

"So, is that why you're getting ready to leave early again tonight?" Adelaide asked, clearly realising he was putting everything away and packing things up. he couldn't remember the last time he'd left early on a Friday, or when he'd left for an entire weekend.

"I'm planning on taking her out." He didn't know where yet, but he had a couple of ideas and he knew her favourite places. He'd see where could take his reservation, and take her there. So he grinned as he shut his computer down, and just grabbed his camera case. "See you both next week."

"You're taking off the whole weekend?" Adelaide asked, knowing that if he was gone the whole weekend then she could be too. He didn't blame her for wanting the weekend free, he often wanted that too.

"I don't have an ongoing assignment right now, so if she has no case I'm going to pay her all the attention in the world." He couldn't wait to spend as much time with her as he could. He hoped she didn't have a case, purely because they hadn't spent too much time together recently, and a weekend to themselves was almost certainly what the doctor ordered. "If I get an urgent assignment, call me. Otherwise I'll see you on Monday." He grabbed his jacket and left the two women in the office with a grin.

He drove to hers as fast as he legally could, grinning when he saw her car already on the driveway. Recently he hadn't even been back to his apartment, everything was at hers, and he had spent the majority of his time here. This was home. He still wasn't going to claim that it was actually home until she asked him to share this place. "Hey, you're home early." Merri replied almost the second he walked through the door.

"I want to take you out, treat you like a Queen." He kissed her cheek as he put his stuff down behind the sofa then climbed over and sat beside her.

"James." She sighed and laughed a little. He knew why, too. He had never been that person. He'd never been the type who would go all out for no reason, and really he'd even rarely gone all out when he'd had a reason. But right now she deserved to be treated a little.

"I never treated you the way I should have done before, MB." He admitted, kissing her cheek again as he pulled her into his arms a little. There was a definite reason for him to spoil her rotten, and he definitely would, if she let him. "Let me spoil you now."

"Alright, where are we going?" She grinned after a few seconds. He was surprised she'd given up quite so easily. It had been a very long time since he'd seen her give up on anything so quickly. Maybe she just really wanted to be spoiled, or she was so exhausted from being pregnant she didn't have the energy to fight with him.

"That's a surprise." He told her, still not completely sure himself, but he'd get a call back from one of them soon, and then he'd know where they were going for certain.

"Who are you and what have you done with James Lathom?" She asked, and there was a hint of real concern under the joke that she tried to make it. Merri had often worried when she didn't need to, and given that they'd only just decided to go through with this pregnancy she probably felt like worrying was all she could do.

"I'm turning over a new leaf." He shrugged and leant forward to kiss her again softly. He missed doing this, and these afternoons and evenings. They hadn't really had chance since he'd gotten here from Dubai, so this weekend was definitely overdue. "It'll probably last a week but I'm trying."

"Can you stop? It's weird." She pulled a face and crinkled her nose in disgust. He knew she was teasing him, but he still found it the most adorable facial expression. She would, no doubt, end up being happy about this, but he was going to wait and let her be impressed.

"I'm still never going to be a hearts and flowers guy." He was warning that now. Even if he did work on treating her more the way she deserved, he was never going to be that guy. He wasn't ever going to give that up entirely. It was all a part of him, and he wouldn't be him without that. Given the smile on her face that was the reassurance she needed.

"Good. I don't want you to change baby." She smiled and looked at him with that adorable lopsided smile that she had when she was truly happy. He had been seeing that grin a lot the last few weeks and months, and he was so glad that he could be part of that. He still wasn't going to change completely, he was just going to try a little more.

"Believe me, I won't." He smirked and leant over to kiss her hard. He was just happy to be there with her, and to be starting this whole new chapter of their lives. There was so much for them to be celebrating tonight, and he was going to be certain that he take it. He wasn't going to let another moment pass if he could help it.


End file.
